The present invention relates to a chopping device and, more particularly, to a chopping device for chopping garden and/or yard waste into pieces.
A known chopping device has a rotary cutting tool having peripheral cutting teeth with gaps between the teeth, which cooperates with an opposing knife element to chop up a workpiece into pieces, and a clearing device which enters into the gaps between the teeth of the cutting tool during operation to remove chopped up material from those gaps.
A known chopping device, particularly for garden waste, which is described in German Patent 40 24 060 C2, has a cutting tool in the form of a cutting roller located at the lower end of a feed shaft provided with an input funnel above the cutting tool. The cross section of the cutting roller corresponds approximately to the lower cross section of the feed shaft. A stationary opposing knife element is provided next to the cutting roller on a bar inclined downwardly from the periphery of the cutting roller, so that a cutting edge having an angular cross section results. The bar is adjustably mounted on a crossbeam of the device. A clearing device cooperates with the cutting roller to clear and free gaps between the teeth of the cutting roller, in which chopped up material passing the opposing knife element is caught, of that chopped up material. The clearing device comprises a reciprocating slider member axially extending over the entire length of the cutting roller, which is driven in synchronization with the passing gaps between the cutting teeth of the rotating cutting roller. The free end of the sliding member is bevelled so that a tooth-like point of engagement is formed on it which enters the gaps. The sliding member is located on the side of the feed shaft opposite or remote from the opposing knife and is reciprocated in operation by engagement with a cam of the drive shaft for the rotating cutting roller.